


Bad Day

by ChirpB



Series: Say My Name [2]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, College, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone is a good hyung, Fight Scenes, Hurt/Comfort, I can't write those for the life of me, I feel his pain, I'm Still Bad At Tagging, Implied Hongjoong/Seonghwa, Jongho is a precious maknae, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Minor Injuries, Minor Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, OC is the Villain, One Shot, Platonic Relationships, Superhero!Jongho, Superheroes, We just suffer like men, Whump, jongho-centric, kind of beta'd, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21652372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChirpB/pseuds/ChirpB
Summary: “Are...are you even listening to me?”“No, not really. I’ve heard all of this before and I honestly couldn’t care any less today.”Before Jongho could say anything else, Argo stomped on the ground, causing it to rumble and throw Jongho off balance.This was one of those moments when Jongho wished he could fly. That would help so much. Argo was pissing Jongho off a lot more than he needed to. He seemed to just be toying with him right now.------------------Jongho is a hero named Titan.He's having a bad day at college.(Please read the previous work in the series for context)
Relationships: Choi Jongho & Everyone, Choi Jongho/Everyone, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Say My Name [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560964
Comments: 9
Kudos: 135





	Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, another work instead of Emotions. I'm so sorry.
> 
> I did tell someone I was going to post this on Sunday, but I may have lied. Sorry, fam.
> 
> Please enjoy!
> 
> Can be read as a standalone from the first one, but you might miss something.
> 
> Let me know what y'all think!!!

“Jongho,” Jongho could hear someone calling out his name. He didn’t really register who it was, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder, trying to shake him awake.

He heard himself make some incoherent mumbling noises of protest.

“Bro, you gotta wake up. I know your professor never cancels class. And I know you never want to skip that class, so why aren’t you there?”

Jongho shot up from his bed after he registered what his roommate had said.

“What?!?!?” 

Yunho stepped back, startled by Jongho’s outburst, careful not to step too much on his injured leg, “Woah, calm yourself. Don’t get too worked up over missing one class. I just wanted to wake you up because I know you never try and miss a class.”

Jongho quickly grabbed his phone from his nightstand and looked at the time.

Nine fifteen, which meant he missed his really important eight thirty class.

Jongho let out a noise of frustration and laid back down on his bed, facedown.

“Hey, don’t worry, it’s not that big of a deal. People miss classes a lot, you can miss just one, Jongho,” Yunho said, trying to get Jongho to not get frustrated over the situation. Yunho stepped towards Jongho and put a hand on his back, rubbing it gently.

Jongho let out a sigh and flipped over to face his roommate, “I just...I need to go to classes so I can do well in the classes. I don’t learn anything if I don’t go. And if I don’t learn anything, I won’t be able to do well on tests, and if I don’t do well on tests, I’ll lose my scholarship. If I lose my scholarship, then I can’t go to college anymore. And if I can’t-”

“Stop that. You’ll be fine. Seonghwa is a successful student, right?” Yunho interrupted.

Jongho nodded, “Yeah, he is. What about it?”

Yunho gave a soft smile, “Seonghwa never went to his math class. He Always ended up staying up late trying to finish other homework or even fighting. He slept through his math class. And at the end of the year, he almost failed the final exam, but that didn’t matter to him. He still kept pushing through it.”

“But Seonghwa-hyung is smart. Of course he would still pass his classes,” Jongho said with a pout.

Yunho chuckled, “He’s really not. He just likes to think he is.”

Jongho gave Yunho a look of disbelief and then let out a laugh, “What makes you say that?”

“What makes you think he is?”

Jongho couldn’t really give a reason for that.

“It’s just because he acts like it, Jongho. But in reality he has one brain cell like the rest of us,” Yunho said, leaning on his own bed.

Jongho looked at Yunho’s leg and was given a painful reminder of what happened to the older.

Yunho must’ve noticed Jongho’s expression as he spoke, “Hey, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m almost all the way healed.”

Jongho nodded, but he still felt guilty for not being able to find Yunho sooner. The guy was tortured to the point where he couldn’t walk, breath, or even think correctly. He liked to think he was fine, but Jongho knew by the sound of quiet whimpers in the middle of the night that the older guy wasn’t okay.

Jongho sat up and hopped off of his bed, “I still have more classes today. I gotta get ready,” Jongho grabbed a pair of dark denim jeans and a white shirt to go change into. When he got back, he put all of his necessary books in his backpack and put on a light-weight jacket that was black. He put on some tennis shoes and slipped his backpack on. 

Jongho turned to look at Yunho, who was lying on his bed, “Have a good day, hyung.”

Yunho looked up at him, “You too! Don’t die! Return with honor! Don’t do drugs! Make some friends!”

Jongho waved him off with a chuckle and walked out the door.

\-----------------------

Jongho was almost to his biology class when he realized that he hadn’t eaten yet and it was almost ten thirty.

He stopped outside of the building, debating if he should stop by a vending machine to grab something really quick. He was really no good on an empty stomach. Plus, his power kind of relied on him having a lot of reserve energy (They discovered that the hard way); so if he ended up having to fight someone soon, it probably wouldn’t end well.

Jongho took that as the final decision maker. He walked inside the building and over to the nearest vending machine that had some pop tarts and stuff in it. Jongho didn’t really like sweets so much, but that was gonna be the best bet for him. 

He reached into his pocket and realized that he’d left his wallet at home. He let out a sigh of frustration and kicked the vending machine, accidentally denting it.

Jongho shook his head and continued on to his class.

\-----------------------------------------

Jongho got out of biology and wanted to go back to his bed and just die in his sleep. It was not the best day for him. His biology teacher told them they have a unit exam over the next two days and Jongho was not ready for it.

He walked out of the building, noticing that it was raining quite a bit. He regretted not looking at the weather forecast so he could plan his outfit better. He let out a sigh and headed towards his last class for the day. He really didn’t want to go, but he had already missed his first class of the day, so he felt guilty for thinking he should miss it to sleep instead.

Jongho walked along the sidewalk that was going along the universities main street. He felt his phone buzz and stopped to pull it out of his pocket and check the message.

It was from Hongjoong in their mission group chat:

  
  


**From: Charge**

_ Alright you guys, tonight we’re doing a stealth mission. _

_ Meeting @6 in the mission room. _

  
  


It was followed by several confirmations from the others, including Jongho.

Just as Jongho was going to put his phone back in his pocket, a car drove by too close to the sidewalk, which happened to have a giant puddle of water by it. The water sprayed up into Jongho’s face and drenched him. Jongho let out a noise of complaint and felt his face heat up in anger.

_ ‘Why did today of all days have to be this bad?’  _ He thought to himself.

Jongho shook off as much water as he could and continued walking to class miserably. His mood definitely wasn’t the greatest and he felt he shouldn't be going to class with an attitude that bad, but the more he thought like that, the worse he felt.

Jongho sighed and stepped onto the grassy quad so he could cut across and get to his class faster.

Once he was about to the middle of the quad, he could feel a faint rumble under his feet. Him and several of the other students walking along the quad all stopped and glanced around at each other nervously.

Jongho readied his stance, then realised that he couldn’t use his power without his mask on.

He began walking again as the ground continued to shake. He could tell it wasn’t an earthquake. Those felt very different.

Jongho almost made it to the edge of the quad when the ground beneath him burst open, throwing him and a few other students around.

Jongho landed on his back with a grunt, the wind getting knocked out of him.

He got up as quickly as he could and looked to see what was happening. Students were running around in a panic, there were chunks of earth everywhere around them. Jongho looked for the perpetrator and saw a man who looked only a little bit older than Jongho. He had on cargo pants and wasn’t wearing a shirt; making him show off his toned body. A mask covered the top half of his face, making it so you could see his mouth that was set in a twisted grin. His black hair stuck out of the top of the mask in a longer buzz cut. He seemed to have weird-looking gauntlet things covering his forearms, with tattoos covering the rest of his visible body.

Jongho saw that the man wasn’t looking at him and decided to get away to a spot behind a building so he could put his mask on.

He got behind a bush and took his jacket off, leaving him in his plain white shirt and his jeans. He put the mask on his face. It covered the bottom half of his face like a normal mask would. Whenever he activated his powers, his eyes would be a different color, so he didn’t really have to worry too much about people trying to recognize him. Besides, the students at the university were respectful to their identities, surprisingly.

Jongho quickly took his phone out of his pocket so he could tell the others that he might need backup, but he quickly saw that it was cracked. He tried the power button, but the phone only flickered to life for a second then died.

Jongho let out a frustrated yell and chucked his now broken phone at the building wall by him. He got the phone stuck in the wall while damaging it more.

Jongho let out a sigh, left his bag behind the bush and ran out towards the guy.

The guy was moving a bunch of earth around and was about to drop a giant rock onto an innocent student who was struggling to move away from him. 

Jongho ran forward just in time. He put his hands up to stop the rock just as the guy brought it down on them. Jongho let out a grunt as he felt the rock scratch up his hands a bit. He honestly just wanted to have a normal day where he could relax, but this guy just decided to ruin that for him. 

The rock kept pushing down on Jongho and he took a couple deep breaths to get his strength up and looked down to see if the student had moved. He hadn’t.

“Go!” Jongho yelled at him. 

The student quickly got up and sprinted off.

“Ah, just the man I wanted to see,” the guy said, causing Jongho to turn back to him. The pressure of the rock got lifted and Jongho readied his stance. 

“Who are you? Why are you attacking the here?” Jongho asked the man, annoyance filling his tone.

The guy chuckled, “Well, you see, a guy named Havoc told me to, and offered me a large amount of money in return for it. So I figured, why not? Easy pickings, am I right?” He slowly started walking towards Jongho.

Jongho sat there with a confused look on his face, “A guy asked you to target me specifically?”

“No, no, Titan, just you’re whole team.”

Jongho scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Well, jokes on you. We’re going to beat you and you won’t be able to get your money from this Havoc guy.” 

Jongho couldn’t think of why, exactly, but the name Havoc sounded vaguely familiar. It set him on edge.

“I don’t really know who this Havoc man is, but what’s your name? That seems more important to know right now.”

The guy shrugged, “It’s not that important. My name is Argo, and I’m here to kill you.” 

Jongho quirked an eyebrow at that.

“I have been waiting for the day when I would be able to show off my power and make people recognise me. This man has given me the opportunity to do that, so I’m going to prove myself to everyone that they should fear me! I was born with greatness and I-” Argo cut himself off and stared at Jongho, who was fixing his shirt.

“Are...are you even listening to me?”

“No, not really. I’ve heard all of this before and I honestly couldn’t care any less today.”

Before Jongho could say anything else, Argo stomped on the ground, causing it to rumble and throw Jongho off balance.

This was one of those moments when Jongho wished he could fly. That would help so much. Argo was pissing Jongho off a lot more than he needed to. He seemed to just be toying with him right now. 

Jongho slowly stepped towards him, picking up speed so he could just ram the guy and get this over with. Argo seemed to underestimate how fast Jongho could run. It wasn’t part of his power, but he was still pretty fast for a guy like him. 

Jongho reached Argo and threw a punch at his face which Argo dodged effortlessly. Jongho threw a couple more which were all dodged. He let out something that sounded somewhat like an angry growl.

“Aww, is baby getting mad that I can dodge him?” Argo said snidely.

Jongho yelled and went to punch him again. Argo saw this too easily and moved the earth under Jongho’s arm to hit it. Jongho thought he felt something break and let out a grunt in pain.

Jongho took some steps back and grabbed his arm to try and make the pain die down. 

_ ‘Where’s Yunho-hyung when you need him?’  _ Jongho thought to himself, “Alright, that’s it. You’ve pissed me off enough!”

Argo was a couple yards away from Jongho, “Did I push your buttons too much, Titan?”

Jongho shook his arm, wincing slightly at the pain, and rushed forward to try and tackle Argo. Argo barely managed to jump out of the way before Jongho landed.

Jongho quickly got up and tried to make his power surge more so he could be faster. That’s what he gets for not eating any kind of food yet today.

He felt his skin heat up and felt a bit more energy course through him. That was enough to catch Argo off-guard.

Jongho quickly swept the man’s legs and straddled the top of him, pinning his arms down.

“Don’t try anything. My day has already been bad. You do something that’s gonna piss me off even more and you might not be conscious in the next couple seconds,” Jongho said, anger flaring through him.

Argo just let out a deep chuckle, “Bad day, huh? You guys seem to be having those a lot lately.”

“What?” Jongho asked, really confused.

“Well, I mean, your friend Prowler got pretty hurt, didn’t he?”

Jongho felt his brain get clouded with rage. He shouldn’t be getting this worked up about his older friend being injured, yet still alive. Yunho was okay, so why was Jongho getting so mad?

Jongho didn’t really think too much about that and only went to punch Argo. Jongho raised his arm up in the air and-

“Titan! Stop!”

Jongho whipped his head around and saw Seonghwa, Wooyoung, and San standing there, their stances ready for battle.

Jongho was breathing heavily. He shook his head to try and get the rage cleared out. Jongho seemed to let up and Argo took that opportunity to launch both of them into the air. 

Jongho felt his stomach drop like he was on a roller coaster. He was spinning in the air and saw a glimpse of Argo. Argo launched them and was able to get himself to land on a rock way up so he didn’t fall and die. Jongho actually felt jealous of the guy as he went hurtling towards the ground.

He braced himself for impact with wind whipping at his face. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared to be very injured.

Before he hit the ground though, he felt himself hit into some water and sucked in some water from how surprised he was.

Jongho continued coughing in the water, only taking in more water to his lungs. He felt himself slowly getting lowered to the ground. His knees landed on now wet grass and he ended up on his hands and knees, coughing really hard.

Jongho looked up from his position on the ground and saw Argo flying on his rock in the distance with Wooyoung chasing after him on some metal he got from somewhere.

He turned his head to look at San and Seonghwa.

“What were you thinking?” Seonghwa asked sternly. Seonghwa was never angry, it was more like he was just strict. Never angry at them though. 

Jongho tried to take in a breath to answer but ended up coughing up more water. He could feel his face getting red from how much he was struggling.

“Hyung, hold on. Let me get the water out of his lungs,” San, or Crescent, said from beside him. Seonghwa nodded and San placed his hand on Jongho’s back.

Jongho could feel water moving around his lungs and almost panicked at the feeling.

“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t try to breathe for a second,” San said, trying to comfort jongho while moving the water out of him. 

Jongho closed his eyes to try and calm himself down as he felt a giant blob of water come out of his mouth.

San removed his hand and Jongho began coughing even more.

“Okay, now you can drill him with questions, hyung,” San said, his smile hidden by the mask he was wearing.

“I think that’ll have to wait. Wooyoung needs help,” Seonghwa said, pointing to the scene of the fighting. 

Jongho looked over and saw both men on the ground throwing chunks of rock and metal at each other. He quickly stood up and brushed himself off. 

“I got it!” He said, running towards the fight before either of his hyungs could say anything. 

He came up on the fight just as Wooyoung got thrown right past him. He didn’t bother trying to catch him, hoping one of the others would break his fall. 

Jongho rushed towards Argo, who was still recovering from the fight with Wooyoung, and tried to punch him again. His arm was screaming in protest, but Jongho felt like his rage was still bubbling over.

Argo saw Jongho just in time and put a rock wall in between them. Jongho didn’t try and stop, he just used all of his might to punch through the solid rock wall.

The whole wall didn’t break, but Jongho was able to get a hold of Argo’s neck through the wall. He held him with a vice-like grip and wouldn’t let go. Jongho could feel small rocks being thrown at him, but he didn’t care. He broke the rest of the wall and stared at Argo.

He felt his breathing become ragged with his rage at the man.

Argo was making noises that meant he was struggling to breathe.

_ ‘Good,’  _ Jongho thought. He picked up the man with the hand around his throat and then slammed him into the ground.

Jongho didn’t realize it at the time, but his hyungs were all running towards him telling him to stop before he went too far. 

He felt Argo go limp in his hand and dropped him. 

Jongho could barely hear the others running up behind him with all the blood rushing through him. His breathing was calming down a little bit and his adrenaline was wearing off.

He began to feel the pain in his arm and lungs and dropped to his knees. Jongho could only hear ringing in his ears now, with some snippets of other conversation going on around him.

“-tan. Hey, youngest of the bunch, listen to me,” Jongho shook his head after he heard Wooyoung speaking to him.

“Huh?”

“Are you okay? That was really weird.”

Jongho stood up, wincing when he felt the pain in his arm. He could see Wooyoung’s concerned look. He let out a quiet “Ow,” and shook his head, attempting to clear it.

Seonghwa walked over to him and firmly placed both of his hands onto Jongho’s shoulders, “What was that? Are you okay?” Jongho looked up to see Seonghwa’s expression a mix of concern and disappointment.

“I’m fine,” Jongho said, using his uninjured arm to push Seonghwa’s arms off of him.

“You’re obviously not fine, Titan,” Seonghwa said, a look of utter disappointment on his face.

“I am fine, Nightwave,” Jongho replied. It took too long for him to realize that he had said that with too much venom dripping from his voice.

Seonghwa’s face scrunched in disappointment. Jongho could feel his mind clearing up after that look, “H-hyung, I-”

Jongho didn’t get to finish his statement before Seonghwa turned, said something to San, and then left. 

Jungho let his shoulders slump and looked at the other two boys, “I didn’t mean to- I just-” San held up a hand to stop him from talking.

“That doesn’t matter right now. Nightwave told us to call and wait for the authorities. He wants you to go home though; go have Prowler patch you up if he can. He’s going to talk to Charge,” San explained.

Wooyoung gave Jongho a nervous look and Jongho looked at the ground in regret, “I didn’t mean to.”

San nodded, Jongho could see a small eye-smile forming behind his mask, “I’m sure he knows that. We all have bad days, Titan. We’ll see you later, okay? Go home and rest a little. Make sure you eat something.”

Jongho nodded with a sad smile and began to walk over to where he put his stuff earlier. He grabbed his backpack and pulled his mask off, stuffing it into his bag. He put his jacket back on and zipped it up so no one would see the mildly concerning bloodstains on his white shirt. He then went to the wall to pry his damaged phone out of it. He turned it over a couple times to look at the damage. He sighed at how broken it was and put it in his pocket.

After he made sure he had everything and looked like he hadn’t just fought a villain, he started to walk back towards his dorm to find his hyung.

\-----------------------------------------------

Jongho sat on his bed, waiting for Yunho to come back from wherever he was. Probably a class.

He kept turning his phone over in his hand and kept trying to use the power button to no avail. He wondered if maybe Hongjoong would be able to fix it with his electricity, or something, but he doubted that would actually work.

Jongho let out a sigh and put the phone down on his nightstand. He closed his eyes for a minute and almost fell asleep.

Before he could fall completely asleep though, he heard a knock on the door. 

Confused at who could be knocking, Jongho slowly walked to the door and looked out the peephole. When he saw that it was Yunho, he quickly opened the door.

Yunho had a plastic bag with something in it in one hand and both his crutches in the other. 

Jongho made eye contact with the elder, expecting to get a disappointed look. Instead he was met with the always kind smile on Yunho’s face.

“I brought us food. I’m assuming you didn’t eat today because your wallet was still in the room?”

Jongho nodded, a sheepish smile on his face. Jongho quickly grabbed the bag from Yunho’s hand so he could use his crutches.

“I know I’m not an empath or anything like that, but...bad day?” Yunho asked, using his crutches to move to sit on the couch they had in the room.

“Y-yeah. A bit.”

“Want to talk about it?” Yunho asked, making grabby hands towards the bag in Jongho’s hand. 

Jongho handed it over, “I don’t really know how to talk about it. But I think my side effect was really bad today.”

Yunho stopped looking through the bag and looked at Jongho with sadness in his eyes, “Bad enough that?” Yunho prodded.

“Bad enough that I yelled at Seonghwa-hyung and I choked the villain until he passed out,” Jongho explained.

Jongho heard Yunho wince a bit at the explanation, “Very bad day, then. I’m sorry I can’t really help too much.”

“It’s alright, hyung. I was wondering if you could heal my arm though. The guy, Argo, I think he broke my elbow.”

Yunho immediately shot up, hopping over to Jongho, “Let me see.”

Jongho took off his jacket, wincing when the sleeve brushed too much on his injured arm.

Yunho winced when he saw it, “That’s not very pretty.”

“Doesn’t feel very good either.”

Jongho watched as Yunho continued examining his arm, the latter’s eyes turning a glowing dark-green color, indicating his power being activated. As Yunho moved his hands up and down Jongho’s arm, Jongho could feel the older working his magic.

Suddenly, Jongho’s arm let out a loud snap, causing Jongho to cry out and Yunho to withdraw himself, eyes no longer glowing.

“There, it’s all good. Might be a bit sore though,” Yunho said with a bright smile that only he could give.

Jongho rubbed his elbow. He smiled back at Yunho and motioned for him to sit down. Yunho did willingly.

“Hyung, I know I need to apologize to Seonghwa-hyung, but I don’t really know how.”

“I think that once you start with saying ‘I’m sorry’ the rest will just come naturally. Don’t worry so much. He’s a very forgiving guy. He might just be mad because you might’ve reminded him of how he used to be.”

“How he used to be?” Jongho asked, a little confused at the statement.

“It isn’t my story to tell, but he might tell you if you ask. That might be-” Yunho was cut off by a loud notification on his phone. Jongho watched him pull his phone out of his pocket and saw the older’s face become concentrated.

“I forgot about the meeting tonight. It’s in like ten minutes. We should probably go,” Yunho said, placing his phone back in his pocket.

“That would be smart, even if I don’t really want to go,” Jongho said nervously.

“Don’t get so worked up about it. We’ve seen worse than a little bit of rage, Jongho. Now help me get down to my car. I can’t walk or drive, so you’re driving me over there.”

Jongho let out a little laugh, “Of course, hyung.”

The two put the bag of food in their fridge and made their way down to the parking lot. Yunho tossed his keys to Jongho after he unlocked the car. Jongho caught the keys and went into the driver's seat to turn the car on, turning the heat up so they wouldn't be super cold during their drive.

After he got the car on and turned the heat up, Jongho went back to help Yunho put his crutches into the car and helped the elder into the passenger seat. 

“This will be what it’s like when you’re really old, hyung. Except you’ll have a walker instead of crutches.”

Yunho sent a joking glare in Jongho’s direction, “You rude little child.”

Jongho chuckled, closing the door and walking over to the driver’s side of the car. He got into his seat and made sure both his and Yunho’s seatbelts were on. Jongho backed out of the parking spot and began driving to where Hongjoong and Seonghwa lived. 

Halfway there, Yunho began to make some small talk about what he had learned in his classes that day, giving some pauses for jongho to speak, which he didn’t do much of.

After a couple minutes, they had arrived at the building.

It was a building that was a lot further from campus, a little bit in the mountains. Seonghwa was rich. His family had left him a lot of money, so the house the two lived at was pretty nice and big and away from everything else. That was all really convenient for them being superheroes. 

Jongho pulled into the long driveway and parked the car, turning the engine off. He got out and went to help Yunho get his crutches out of the back.

After Yunho was good, Jongho lead the way to the front door and rang the doorbell.

He never really knocked anymore because of one time when he was too excited and knocked too hard and broke the door down.

The two waited for a second, Yunho shifting a little bit, and finally the door opened. It revealed Yeosang standing there with one hand on the doorknob and one hand pinching Mingi’s ear.

His face went from blank to small smile at the sight of the two, “Hey guys, meeting starts in a couple minutes. We’ll be in the basement.”

Jongho laughed a little at the scene and stepped inside, Yunho following close behind.

“So...why is Mingi in this position?” Jongho asked, eyebrow raised.

He turned his attention to look at Mingi and saw that the older had a pout on his face.

“He was running around the house being and idiot as per usual and almost broke something on the way to the door,” Yeosang explained.

“My poor Mingles! I’m sorry you had to face Yeosang’s wrath!” Yunho fake cried, moving to comfort the man in Yeosang’s grasp.

Jongho watched in amusement as Yeosang let go of Mingi and let Yunho coddle him. Yeosang moved to Jongho’s side.

“I heard you had a bad day. Try not to worry about it too much, I can tell you are.”

Jongho gave him a sad smile and nodded. Yeosang headed towards the basement and Jongho decided to follow, leaving the tallest two behind.

As they made their way downstairs, Jongho couldn’t help but notice how clean everything was. He wondered if Seonghwa had some maids or something like that. He knew that Hongjoong definitely wasn’t the cleanest person, so there was no way it was him cleaning. 

There were some pictures of Seonghwa and Hongjoong lining the walls. There were also some pictures of them as a group. Some from before Jongho joined the group. Some after missions and some from when they would just hang out. Jongho smiled fondly at them. Those were times when they weren’t so busy with schooling and hero work. They didn’t have as much experience then. 

Now though. Now they never had time to hang out with each other and are too experienced, in a way.

Jongho felt the smile leave his face immediately at that thought and decided to just head all the way down so he could get it over with.

Jongho followed Yeosang to the room that the eldest two reserved for mission briefing. It had a table with chairs that they all gathered around and some fancy technology stuff that was used to explain their plans.

They entered the room and Jongho was greeted with the sight of Wooyoung and San sitting in their chairs next to each other, Wooyoung’s head on San’s shoulder, his eyes closed. He also saw Hongjoong and Seonghwa over by a laptop looking over something.

San turned his head to look at the two and gave them a small smile. 

Usually they would be given really loud greetings from the two sitting down, but that didn’t happen this time.

Jongho sat down next to San and Yeosang sat next to Wooyoung. Jongho laid his head down on the table and waited for the meeting to begin. 

After a couple of minutes, Mingi and Yunho finally entered the room and sat down in their seats. This gave Hongjoong the queue to begin the mission briefing.

“Okay, today’s mission is a stealth mission. Yunho can’t go because of his leg still, so his tracking is out of the picture,” Hongjoong began. Jongho looked over to his Roommate and saw his eyes look down in disappointment in himself. Jongho wanted so bad to g and comfort the elder boy, but he couldn’t at that time.

“That leaves either me or San to track as best as we can. I can either track with static electricity, or San can with sensing the water inside of people. We can decide who takes point once we get there,” he continued. Jongho noticed that everyone was paying attention as much as they could. Wooyoung was actually awake now too.

“Mingi, you won’t be going. Sad to say, but you are pretty loud and your fire will only draw attention.”

Mingi almost went to protest, but kept himself quiet, which was surprising to Jongho.

“Jongho, you won’t be going either,” Hongjoong said, causing Jongho to jump. Jongho saw everyone else, except for the oldest two, straighten up a little.

Jongho didn’t argue, “Okay, hyung.”

He noticed Seonghwa looking at him with a look that said he was sorry. Jongho didn’t know what Seonghwa would be sorry for, so he kept in his mind to ask about it later.

Jongho kind of tuned out of the rest of the briefing after that. Knowing he wasn’t going kind of made him space out and think too much.

Hongjoong concluded the meeting and told everyone who was going to go get ready.

Jongho almost walked out of the door after Mingi and Yunho, who were probably just going to hang out until the mission was over, but Hongjoong stopped him.

“Hey, Jongho, can you come here for a second?”

Jongho stiffened and nodded, walking over to Hongjoong and Seonghwa, who was still by the former.

Jongho looked at Seonghwa, “I...I’m really sorry for earlier, hyung,” Jongho said quietly, eyes cast downward.

Jongho just stared at the floor, waiting to be reprimanded by his hyungs, but he only felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up.

He saw that Seonghwa was the one who had a hand on his shoulder and looked up to meet his gaze.

“Jongho, I can tell you’ve been beating yourself all day over that. It’s okay, you just...reminded myself of how I used to be,” Seonghwa explained.

Jongho was very confused and looked over at Hongjoong for any sort of hint. Hongjoong just looked at Seonghwa with a slightly worried, yet loving expression on his face.

“I’ll tell you more about it some other day, Jongho, but for now I have to go get ready for the mission. Hongjoong wanted to talk to you about a couple other things.” Jongho nodded at the information. Seonghwa gave him one last smile before he turned to Hongjoong, patted his shoulder, and then exited the room.

Jongho turned back to Hongjoong, “What did you want to talk about?”

Hongjoong motioned for Jongho to take a seat and he did. 

“You’re not going not going on the mission because you’ve been having an off day, which you never do, so I know it’s bad. Please don’t try to take it the wrong way. Plus, I know you’re busy studying for some tests and stuff, so I just wanted to give you a break,” Hongjoong explained, taking a seat across from Jongho. 

Jongho nodded at the explanation, “That makes sense. I’m sorry I’m not up to par today.”

Hongjoong shook his head, “No, I don’t want you to think like that. I know you didn’t get enough to eat today. That’s why I think your rage built up more than normal. I think the less normal energy you have makes it worse when you try to use your energy to fight. Think of it like being hangry.”

Jongho chuckled at that, “Wow, so that’s what I’ll call it from now on.”

Hongjoong also let out a laugh, “Exactly my point. Now we have a name for it.”

They stopped talking for a second as Hongjoong grabbed his laptop.

“Tell me about the villain today.”

Jongho nodded and launched into an explanation of the encounter with Argo. He got to the part where he mentioned the guy named HAvoc and Hongjoong stopped him.

“Havoc? Like the one that tortured Yunho?” Jongho could see the worry etched onto Hongjoong’s face.

“I don’t know exactly, but Argo said that someone named Havoc was paying him to attack us.”

Hongjoong nodded, typing something on his computer. He then motioned for Jongho to continue his story.

Once he was finished talking, he watched his leader type a couple more things onto his laptop before he shut it and put it on the table.

“Last thing we need to talk about: Have you noticed anything up with Yunho?” Hongjoong asked.

Jongho was taken aback at the question but thought about it for a second, “Maybe a little bit. He seems to be having some kind of nightmare every couple nights. I don’t wake him up from them because I know he needs all the energy he can get from his sleep, and he usually stops whimpering after a couple minutes. That’s it though. I know he really wants to get back out there and fight.”

Hongjoong nodded at the information, brows furrowing, “Nightmares. I’m glad they aren’t at a level that would classify them as PTSD. Please keep an eye out for him, okay?”

Jongho gave him a sad smile and nodded, “Of course, hyung.”

“You can go hang out out there now, if you want. And try not to worry about what happened today. We all have bad days.”

Jongho nodded and headed out of the room.

\----------------------------------------

Jongho was glad when the others had gotten back from their mission. He had been stuck with Yunho and Mingi in the basement living room for a couple hours. The older two just playing Mario Kart for the entirety of the mission the others were on.

After they got back safe and sound, Jongho basically dragged Yunho to the car and drove them both back to the dorms. 

Once they were inside, Jongho flopped onto the couch and almost fell asleep.

“Oh yeah, Jongho, I know your phone is broken. I know that’s your alarm, so I have a digital clock you can use until we get you a new phone,” Yunho said from their room.

Jongho sat up and watched Yunho walk, or hop, out of the room, “Thank you so much, hyung.”

Yunho nodded with his big puppy smile, making Jongho melt a little.

“Oh yeah, let’s eat the food I got. Thankfully it’s the kind that still tastes good when it’s cold,” Yunho said, making his way over to the fridge.

Jongho went to help him and the two ended up both sitting on the couch just laughing at vine compilations playing on Yunho’s laptop.

After they were done and ready for bed, Jongho got into his bed, watching his hyung so he didn't fall over and die or anything.

Once Yunho was in bed, Jongho just stared up at the ceiling, until Yunho spoke again.

“You know you can tell me anything that’s bothering you, right, Jongho?”

Jongho turned his head to look across the room to Yunho’s bed, “Yeah, I know,” Jongho paused for a second, debating how to say what he wanted to say next, “Hyung, you can tell me anything too. If something is bothering you, or if you need to talk about anything, I’m here for you, okay?”

Jongho saw Yunho give a sad smile, “I will if I need to, Jongho. Let’s go to bed, okay?”

Jongho hummed in agreement, still a little worried for Yunho. He turned to lay flat on his back and stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all liked that
> 
> Let me know what you thought about it and if there's anything that needs fixing.
> 
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> 
> Have a good one, nuggets!!!
> 
> My Twitter: [@Chirp_B](https://twitter.com/Chirp_B)
> 
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